Comer says he's ready to subpoena Bidens' phone and bank records, give witnesses immunity

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer on Friday night pointedly dismissed the appointment of a special counsel in the Hunter Biden criminal probe as "another maneuver... to obstruct" Congress and vowed to escalate his investigation by subpoenaing Hunter and Joe Biden's phone and bank records and offering witnesses immunity.

"We're getting closer every day to showing that Joe Biden was the ringleader in this, not Hunter Biden," Comer said in an exclusive interview with the "Just the News, No Noise" television show just hours after Attorney General Merrick Garland shocked Washington by announcing that he was upgrading Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss to a special counsel after four years of investigating the Biden family finances.

Comer dismissed Garland's decision as ineffective, noting Weiss had years to bring serious charges and instead managed to construct a plea deal that spared Hunter Biden prison for tax evasion and gun charges that even the trial judge could not accept.

"It's another maneuver by the Justice Department to obstruct our investigation. I find it odd that, the day after I announced that we had put together a case that would win in court to subpoena Joe Biden's personal bank records, then lo and behold, Merrick Garland strikes again," Comer said.

"I assumed he would try to indict Trump or something. But no, he appoints a special counsel and he appoints the same person who had supposedly been investigating Hunter Biden for years, who let the statute of limitations expire on all of his obvious tax crimes, who tried to negotiate a sweetheart plea deal that let him off scot-free. And less than two weeks later, after a judge rejects that sweetheart plea deal, Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel for the sole purpose to obstruct our credible, effective oversight House investigation of Biden corruption."

Comer said he is now prepared to subpoena the credit card and bank records of the president and his son as well as their phone records to check witness allegations that Joe Biden got financial benefit from Hunter Biden's clients and talked and met with them at various times.

"We're at the point to where we put together a case where we have emails, we have text messages, we have pictures, we have bank records. Now we have sworn testimony from associates like Devon Archer. We are ready now to be able to subpoena the personal bank records of the Bidens," he said.

"What we've got now are their shady shell companies. Now, we need the personal records," he said. "Because when we show... that chart that shows China and Romania and Russia and the arrows go into shell companies and into the Biden's family, we think there may be another arrow beyond the Biden family. And that would go to Joe Biden himself. And that's what people have told us. That's what the emails suggest. And that's what we're trying to determine now. And that's where our investigation is headed."

The White House dismissed Comer's probe anew, issuing a lengthy statement personally attacking the congressional probe.

Comer said he wasn't concerned by such attacks and declared it was time to give some key witnesses immunity, an act that would take a vote of the full committee and House.

"We're going to continue to exercise our subpoena power. Hopefully, when we move to impeachment inquiry, that'll be able to give us tools like granting immunity," he explained. "If we could grant immunity. I think people like Devon Archer would have said a whole lot more. I think people like Eric Schwerin would tell a lot of things that the Bidens have done that we know they've done, that everyone in America knows they've done."